House Approves Bill to Improve School Safety

The House has approved a bill to improve school safety in the wake of the shooting that left 17 dead at a Florida high school. The bill authorizes $500 million over 10 years for grants to improve training and coordination between schools and local law enforcement and help identify signs of potential violence before they occur.

The House approved the bill, 407-10.

The vote marks the first gun-related action by Congress since the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says the bill "provides a multilayered approach" to identify threats so authorities can intervene before violence occurs.

Florida Rep. John Rutherford, a former Jacksonville sheriff, sponsored the bill, which now goes to the Senate.

Earlier the White House said in a statement that Trump's top priority is to keep the American people safe from those who wish to do them harm or to inflict terror upon them. The statement calls the bill a good step.

Meanwhile, the deputy director of the FBI says the agency could have and should have done more to investigate information it received prior to last month's massacre at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, David Bowdich said authorities will never know if any investigative work would have prevented the shooting, "but we clearly should have done more."

The FBI has acknowledged it receive separate tips related to the accused shooter, Nikolas Cruz.

Bowdich says the tips occurred on September 25, 2017 and on Jan. 5. He says he doesn't know why the "very explicit" tip from Jan. 5 was not forwarded to local law enforcement.